Why are there so many different religions?

Because God sent prophets to every people with essentially the same message, and over time people changed those messages to suit their own wishes. So one root grew into many branches that look different today.

The Holy Qur’an takes this question very seriously. It says that people were originally one community. Then God sent prophets to every part of the world. At its core their teaching was the same: there is one God, serve Him and treat one another well.

A prophet brings a society to goodness for a time. But after him, time wears away at his teaching, just as it slowly turns a beautiful building into a ruin. Little by little, people attribute their own ideas and wishes to the divine message. What came from God becomes mixed with what people have made.

A simple example makes this clear. Imagine three people receive the same message. The first changes it in one direction, the second in another, and the third adds a bright idea of his own. In the end there are three different messages, although all came from the same source. That is what happened in the history of religion.

This is why many religions still share common principles today, such as belief in one Creator, honesty, prayer and mercy. The differences were mostly added later.

An attitude belongs to this as well. An old story tells of two knights standing before a shield that is red on one side and blue on the other. Each sees only his own side, and they fight until both are wounded. Whoever is willing to look at a matter from the other person’s angle will more easily see that the same one God stands behind it all.